Lotus employ fired over gay tweet

A Lotus employee has revealed he was fired for posting a ‘tweet’ on the F1 team’s official social networking account earlier in 2014.

In February, as the winter olympics began in Russia, Lotus posted a photo of two men kissing with the caption wishing “all athletes a successful” campaign. The Sochi games had attracted criticism because of Russia’s controversial laws against ‘gay propaganda’. Lotus, whose ‘tweets’ are often humorous and irreverent, promptly removed the “unauthorised” tweet.

But it has taken until now for the rest of the story to emerge. Already, it was clear that Lotus’ sponsor and owner links to Russia were probably the reason for the tweet’s removal. Former Lotus brand director Stephane Samson said on his personal Twitter feed on Monday, however, that he was actually “sacked” over the incident. “Just been told I was sacked because of my supporting tweet towards gay athletes at Sochi. Lotus=Putin. “People must know,” he told his 3,600 followers on Monday. Samson even suggested his followers should use the hashtag “LotusAntiGay”. But later, he deleted the new tweets and explained: “Sorry guys, some tweets had to disappear … once again!”